Questions about Programmer Instrument

FMOD Studio
1

Hi,

I’m a music composer and sound designer and I have some questions regarding the Programmer Instrument. I heard that using it is the best way to allow players to mod the game, but I couldn’t find much info regarding them on the Manuals. So the questions are:

1- How do one set up the callbacks?

2- If I understood correctly, a Programmer Instrument is able to trigger any sound, whether it belongs to the FMOD project or not. I only heard about single sounds though, so I want to know, is it possible to trigger another 3D event from the FMOD project that uses multiple layers?

It would be awesome if someone could link me some materials on how to properly use this feature.

Thanks in advance!

Gustavo

2

Hi Gustavo,

  1. Setting up a programmer instrument and callbacks depends entirely what engine or language you are using. You can see examples for setting up programmer instruments/callbacks with the following:

Unity:
https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?page=content/generated/engine_new_unity/script_example_programmersounds.html#/

UE4:
https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?page=content/generated/engine_ue4/programmer_sounds.html#/

C++:
There is an example in our Studio API examples project.
https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?page=content/generated/example_studio/programmer_sound.html#/

Javascript:
There is an example in our HTML5 API examples project.

  1. Whilst it is possible to trigger a separate event via programmer instruments, it would likely be easier and cleaner to use event instruments instead.

https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-studio?page=working-with-instruments.html#event-instruments

Thanks,
Richard

C++:

3

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the answer!

We’re using Unity, so I’m taking a look at that one.

Regarding the Event Instruments, I don’t quite understand. I talked about using Programmer Instruments because this is the one that allow people to mod the sounds without having to touch FMOD sessions, right? Would Event Instrument have the same usage? The problem is that we want the game to be fully modded, so I’m looking into options for allowing the player to mod the audio without having to touch FMOD if he/she don’t want to. Is there any other better option for modding?

Thanks,
Gustavo

4

Hi Gustavo,

You mentioned “is it possible to trigger another 3D event from the FMOD project” which it is using event instruments. This is a much cleaner and maintainable method than using a programmer instrument to trigger a different event from starting.

If you wish, you can still use programmer instruments to trigger other events.

If you’re looking at modding your game, you can already do so by using a skeleton project of the master FMOD Studio project and getting users to create new banks for their mods. For an example of this, take a look at the X Plane documentation.

I hope this helped.

Thanks,
Richard